A Chain of Amulet Stones against Throbbing Headache: Glimpses into the Dynamics of Amulet Making in Mesopotamia (original) (raw)
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This paper presents evidence for the function of Egyptian amulets in daily life at Late Bronze Age Tel Azekah. The finding of the remains of two individuals in a destroyed Late Bronze Age building along with clusters of Egyptian scarabs and figurative amulets indicates that these artifacts were their personal belongings. It is argued that these Egyptian-originated charm practices were adopted and adapted by the locals, who incorporated them into their own religion.
In 7 century BC Nineveh, in an area located within today's much-troubled Iraqi city of Mosul, an astonishing episode of human history occurred. Thousands of texts from all corners of the Assyrian empire were brought into the royal capital of Nineveh in order to create the rst universal library in human history. The majority of the excavated tablets are now being kept in the British Museum, London. (On these tablets, see this article and this post). Among the texts transported to the Ashurbanipal library, there were works of literature such as the tale of Gilgamesh, written descriptions of rituals and prayers, litanies, explanatory works, and large collections of omens, or royal letters. Numerous collections of healing texts, magical and medical prescriptions , rituals and incantations also found their way into the archives of Nineveh (SAA 7, chapter 7). Among the thousands of manuscripts dealing with healing, one collection stood out. It was written down in cuneiform by highly educated scribes who carefully edited a handbook with medical prescriptions, in-cantations and rituals on behalf of king Assurbanipal. This handbook was arranged into distinctive series , addressing body parts in a sequential order from head to toe. Each series had its own name and chapter called simply 'tablets' in Akkadian. The majority of tablets in this handbook carried the same colophon (i.e. inscription at the end of a tablet with facts about its production): Palace of Ashurbanipal, king of the world, king of the land Assyria, to whom (the gods) Nabû and Tašmētu granted understanding, (who) acquired insight (and) a high level of scribal prociency, that skill which among the kings, my predecessor(s) no one has acquired. I (i.e. Ashurbanipal) wrote, checked, and collated tablets with medical prescriptions from head to the (toenail il, non-canonical material, elaborate teaching(s) (and) the advanced healing art(s) of (the gods) Ninurta
A history of amulets in ten objects
Science Museum Group Journal , 2019
What are amulets? How are they situated in the larger narrative of European healing? Varied and complex objects, amulets present both challenges and opportunities for historians and museums alike. Yet an examination of these often-overlooked items within a medical context can provide significant information about cure and protection over different times and geographies. This article analyses ten amulets from the Science Museum collections, and asks what we can learn from exploring these objects' material features and varying functions. It argues for a reconsideration of amulets from their categorisation by nineteenth-and twentieth-century collectors and classification by modern museums, to their recognition as a significant part of the history of healing.
Textual Amulets from Antiquity to Early Modern Times - The Shape of Words
Bloomsbury Studies in Material Religion, 2023
Comparing amulets over time and space, this volume focuses on the function of written words on these fascinating artefacts. Ranging from Roman Egypt to the Middle Ages and the Modern period, this book provides an overview on these artefacts in the Mediterranean world and beyond, including Europe, Iran and Turkey. A deep analysis of the textuality of amulets provides comparative information on themes and structures of the religious traditions examined. A strong emphasis is placed on the material features of the amulets and their connections to their ritual purposes. The textual content, as well as other characteristics, is examined systematically, in order to establish patterns of influence and diffusion. The question of the production, which includes the relationship that linked professional magicians, artists and craftsmen to their clientele, is also discussed, as well as the sacred and cultural economies involved.
Textual Amulets and Writing Traditions in the Ancient World
Guide to the Study of Ancient Magic, ed. David Frankfurter, 2019
A survey of the development of 'unlettered' amulets to fully written amulets from earliest Mesopotamian, Egyptian, and Phoenician times on through to the Greek and Roman periods, with particular attention paid to the birth of Babylonian cuneiform amulets; the Pharaonic mortuary texts and decree capsules; the Punic gold lamellae; the early Hebrew amulets; and the first inscribed Greek incantations, emphasizing the continuity and continuance of these amuletic traditions well into the Roman period.
This paper focuses on two inscribed Pazuzu-head amulets. One is an unpublished bronze object which originates from the collection of Charles-Louis-Marie de l’Écluse, kept in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France since 1906. The other, which was bought in Baghdad and given to the Musée du Louvre by G. Maspero in 1883, was published by le Père J.-V. Scheil in 1894. The two Pazuzu-head amulets bear different versions of the Standard B incantation, named “Die akkadische Beschwörung” by R. Borger. The present paper analyses the characteristics of the two amulets and compares their inscriptions to other examples known from cuneiform tablets originating from Nineveh, Sultantepe, and Uruk, as well as to the other Pazuzu-head amulets. The different versions of the Standard B incantation allow us to date and identify their Assyrian or Babylonian background and their sphere of application.